A few weeks ago, we wrote a blog post about the hundreds of thousands of deaths that occur every year as a result of a medical error. The report that post referenced found that about 325,000 people die each year because of medical errors.
What this data obviously shows is that far too many people suffer the ultimate penalty for going to the doctor. In light of the information, it would seem like most hospitals and doctors would be on board with some new rules about error reporting to ensure that patients receive better care — in addition to bolstering the ability of medical professionals to learn from the mistakes of others.
However, it appears that there is resistance to new error reporting techniques, or that at the very least, medical professionals and institutions are filing to adapt to new error reporting protocols. Some hospitals are underreporting medical errors or other crucial medical statistics because they are struggling to adapt to new procedures, while other cases have found institutions reluctant to fully reveal some of their data out of fear of legal and financial repercussions.
The fact of the matter is that errors are going to happen all the time in any profession. It doesn’t matter how skilled or knowledgeable a worker is — they are bound to make mistakes, even if they are infrequent. When they happen, they need to learn from them. But with the medical field, in addition to this lesson-learning experience, the individuals and/or institutions involved also need to be held accountable for their actions because an innocent patient is suffering as a result of the mistake.
Source: FierceHealthcare, “Preventable medical error reporting still lacking in some hospitals,” Katie Sullivan, July 28, 2014
